April U.S. tour / Janácek, Dvorak, Beethoven & Smetna
"Take note: this is one of the most polished and musically exciting young string quartets in the world today."
Washington Post, April 2008
"...with full-blooded passion and finely nuanced playing, the young musicians conveyed the yearning of the opening Adagio [in Janacek's String Quartet No 1], the urgency of its bittersweet motif and the ironic joviality of the second-movement polka."
New York Times, April 2008
Janácek String Quartet No.1, Haas String Quartets Nos.1 & 3 / Supraphon
"To describe a CD as musically important is to court a certain level of controversy...but I'll stick my neck out and claim extreme importance for this particular release...This is a superb release that deserves not merely to bask in the reflected glory of its predecessor, but to share in it. The sound is first-rate."
Rob Cowan, Editor's Choice, Gramophone, April 2008
"It's an outstanding disc from this young Czech ensemble, up there with the finest modern recordings and it's the CD Review disc of the week."
BBC Radio 3 CD Review, November 2007
Recital at the Wigmore Hall, London / Beethoven & Janacek
"What impressed most was that the quartet's instinctive ensemble was capable of embracing the subtlest shades of attack and release with complete unanimity."
The Strad, October 2007
Recital in Weilburg / Mozart, Dvorak & Beethoven
"It was an exquisite occasion for chamber music, which lived up to the highest expectations: the Pavel Haas Quartet from Prague, one of the most famous ensembles of the younger generation"
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 June 2007
Haas & Janacek String Quartets / Supraphon
"The young and dynamic Pavel Haas Quartet triumphantly announce their arrival on the recording stage with this first-rate example of the music of their namesake. … Both work benefit from "streamlined but full-blooded playing", ensuring eager anticipation for a follow-up album."
Gramophone Chamber Music Award 2007
"[In Janacek's String Quartet no.2] the players revelled in pointing up the work's searing trills, steely harmonics, vibrant folk influences and craggy angularity... An inspiring and energising experience."
The Stage, October 2007
'What is so impressive about this debut is the group's bold, original approach to this famous repertoire. They are technically beyond reproach and convey, with almost graphic immediacy, Janacek's searing passion. They present us with the finest, most vivid account of Haas's second quartet on disc. A very special group."
BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year Award 2007
"Czech chamber music making of the highest order, both in terms of the work and the performance… not just technically outstanding but also as emotionally committed as Janacek was to Kamila Stosslova… exhilarating… a match for just about any recording in the Czech tradition."
BBC Radio 3 CD of the Week, December 2006
"...a brilliant and instructive recording of Janacek's oft-recorded Second Quartet. The prizewinning Pavel Haas Quartet comprises four relative youngsters, but the precise calibre of their ensemble, their minute attentiveness to one another and the subtle way each member is given space by the others at key solo moments both here and in Haas's Second Quartet make this not just an intelligent, fresh reading, but also a beautifully crisp, clear one."
The Strad, October 2006
"Haas's quartet gets a brilliant performance that combines lyricism with urbane wit. The Janacek is harrowing in its immediacy…"
The Guardian, October 2006
"...a superlative ensemble, as one would expect from a group coached by the Smetana Quartet's Milan Škampa."
The Telegraph, October 2006
"To its composer, Janácek's second string quartet, Intimate Letters, was a work seemingly 'carved out of living flesh'. That's just how it sounds in this brilliant account from a gifted Czech group. Bold in attack, tempo and texture, they never slip and always give us passion… A CD sequel is essential."
The Times, October 2006
East Neuk Festival, Scotland / Haas, Smetana, Mozart
"…a unique mix of impeccable technique and warm, interactive ensemble playing. Their performances of Haas, Smetana and Mozart's sinewy Dissonance quartet were sensational."
The Scotsman, July 2006
St Magnus Festival, Orkney, Scotland / Maxwell Davies, Beethoven, Janacek
"The Pavel Haas Quartet from the Czech Republic were sensational… their account of Beethoven's 3rd Rasumovsky quartet, from the miniscule pianissimo at the start to the thrilling, almost orgiastic Russian dance at the end, was breathtaking."
The Independent, June 2005
"The Pavel Haas gave a magnificent performance of Beethoven's third Razumovsky, with the finale as exciting and explosive as I have heard it. They combine virtuosity with a full, glowing sound, and their style is discreetly aristocratic."
The Sunday Telegraph , June 2005